Sidney Blaylock Jr.'s Blog, page 34
October 4, 2018
Annihilation Movie Review (No Spoilers)
Annihilation Movie Poster. Image Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annihilation_(film)
Annihilation is a movie that I’ve wanted to see every since it was released–however, I could tell that, while Sci-Fi, it was not one that falls within my preferred genre of Action Sci-Fi, or Space Opera. It is generally described as an “idea” Science Fiction movie, meaning that the ideas and concepts are what takes precedence. In my experience, I find that while there is some character development and some light action, generally speaking, they tend to be on the slower side in terms of narrative flow. Not complaining, just an observation–unless it is farce, I generally like all types of Sci-Fi.
Alex Garland
So, this movie was directed by Alex Garland, and he has a visually striking style. The problem is, based on the movie’s narrative, I’m not sure yet whether I find his style to my liking. I’ve tried several times to watch his other Sci-Fi movie, Ex Machina, but I only have managed to get through about half an hour so far (probably just going to have to watch it in half-hour “spurts”). However, while I appreciate his style, it was hard going to try to get through the movie. I knew that if I stopped at any point, I probably would not come back to it and it would be another recent Sci-Fi movie that I abandoned mid-stream (Inception and Looper), so I just plugged on through. I don’t think Alex Garland’s narrative style works for me . . . his visual style is arresting and very distinctive, but I’m not sure that story-telling-wise, that I like the way the narrative connections come together.
Science Fiction of “Ideas”
Yes, Sci-Fi is a genre of ideas and is driven by great ideas. The problem is that one should also really focus on characters and characterization and setting. The problem that occurs is that while their are characters in peril and/or crisis, we are often held at a distance from these characters (especially in Annihilation) and it is hard to form a bond with the characters. While I’m not the best with names in real life, I’m usually pretty good with character’s names, yet I’m struggling to remember the names of the major characters and I just saw the movie 3 or 4 days ago. I remember them, what their actors looked like, what occupation/role they fulfilled, but I don’t remember them as characters and I think this is where the movie ultimately failed for me. Even the ending has a twist (that I won’t spoil) that changes the way the characters might be perceived at the end, but because I didn’t really care about the characters, the ending didn’t work for me because I just didn’t care. The story, as presented, focused too much on the visual effects and the mystery of the “Shimmer” and not enough on the characterization and why I should care. Even the mystery of the Shimmer, while sufficiently explained during the course of the film, didn’t lead to a moment of Epiphany for the main character, but was rather presented as simply a random, if extraordinary event, that was ultimately rendered moot by the main character’s actions during the story. As much as critics dislike The Cloverfield Paradox, I feel that ultimately, while Annihilation is a movie with better special effects and better overall logical storytelling plot points, I find that I enjoyed The Cloverfield Paradox more because I could understand and get behind the characters and their motives. In Annihilation, there was simply too much distance between the viewers and the characters.y
Overrall Grade: C
For a .99 rental, it was at least worth seeing, but I’m glad that I did not pay full theatrical price to see it. Too much focus on the visuals and the ideas behind the visuals and not enough on characterization really dampened my enjoyment of the movie. It also shows some graphic content with the deaths of a couple characters (I guess the director wanted to show the the brutality of the world–but it came off, to me, as unnecessary and exploitative–violence for violence sake and it pulled me out of the narrative when those two scenes occurred.
Sidney
Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora Wolf
Read Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec
Purchase Dragonhawk on Amazon.com (Paperback) or Kindle
Current Work-in-Progress: The Independent (Sci-Fi Short-Story – 2nd Draft)
Current Work-in-Progress: Project Star (Sci-Fi Short-Story -1st Draft)
Current Work-in-Progress: Ship of Shadows (Sci-Fi Graphic Novel – Script, Issue #1, Currently on Script Page 28)
October 2, 2018
Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores, Part Deux
So, I just wanted to say that I did send a story to Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores for this submission period. I doubt seriously that they will accept it, but I really wanted to have something out to them as I have missed three or four submission periods.
Citizen X
I sent them one of the stories that I finished a while back–Citizen X. I don’t expect them to take the story as it is an Alternate History story with Sci-Fi elements. The story has caught the eye of several “slush” readers and been passed up to market editors (at least three separate times), but in each case, the editors decided to pass on it. However, it was the only story that I haven’t sent them that I’ve worked on recently. All of the other stories, HawkeMoon, Silence Will Fall, and Here Be Monsters, among others, they didn’t really like (although they did suggest changes to HawkeMoon and asked for a resubmission of it, but I chose not to do that because I felt the changes would have impacted the story that I was trying to tell. Perhaps that was wrong, but I really try to follow a “hero’s journey” for my stories, but I remember that the changes would have impacted this journey negatively. Unfortunately, Cosmic Roots and Landscapes allows you to “clear” you feedback and once its gone, its gone.
Compelling Science Fiction
The next major market that I’m writing for currently is a smaller market that’s been closed for the past year (maybe longer) and its called Compelling Science Fiction. They are actually opening again from October 1st – December 1st (at least, that’s what the email said when I signed up for email notices of their next opening date). I’m currently working on the Independent and that’s the story that I intend to submit there first. I’m going to have to do a 3rd draft of the story–I’m concentrating on character for this pass, but I”m already over 1,000 words in and I’ve not yet even hit the inciting incident (which should probably happen in the first 500 words). So this draft will be the longest draft and the 3rd draft will be me finding places to cut the story down and adding in a little more setting/description (not a lot, but I feel that it is a little bare bones at the moment).
Rotating Projects
The reason why I’m not finishing projects as fast as I was over the summer is that I’m trying out rotating my projects. I’m working on 3 projects at the moment: Ship of Shadows Graphic Novel, The Independent (2nd Draft), and Project Star (Rough Draft). Once I finish one of these, I’ll move onto another. This ensures that I’m never bored and the projects never grow stale, but it also means that it takes much longer for me to actually “finish” a project. Still, this seems to be working and a lesson that I’m constantly having to re-learn is “if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.”
Well, that’s all for now/ Have a great day!
Sidney
Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora Wolf
Read Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec
Purchase Dragonhawk on Amazon.com (Paperback) or Kindle
Current Work-in-Progress: The Independent (Sci-Fi Short-Story – 2nd Draft)
Current Work-in-Progress: Project Star (Sci-Fi Short-Story -1st Draft)
Current Work-in-Progress: Ship of Shadows (Sci-Fi Graphic Novel – Script, Issue #1, Currently on Script Page 28)
October 1, 2018
Weekend Gamer–September 30, 2018 Edition
Image Source: https://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/p/keep-calm-and-weekend-gamer-on/
So, I’ll keep these gamer updates on the smaller side as they are some of the least popular posts on the blog. I’m not really sure why as video games have become as intricate and as narrative-based as any movie or novel. For me, they represent the “third pillar” of the trifecta of popular culture/entertainment. Sure, the controller looks complicated and adds a layer of abstraction that many non-gamers find daunting, but truly, many of the abstractions in the video game world exist elsewhere–we just choose to ignore them because they fit our paradigm (dice and playing pieces in board games and role-playing games, complicated rules and exceptions for card-based games). Oh well, to each his or her own–if video games aren’t really to the taste of the mainstream, then I’ll just continue to play them and talk about them, but not evangelize them.
This week, a couple of smaller games went on sale that I’ve desperately been wanting after seeing them profiled on YouTube in various places. I’ll only talk about them briefly and save a full discussion of them for a full blog post. Both games are ones that hope will help me with writing projects down the line, so not only do I hope they will be fun, but also inspiring.
Sine More EX
This is an arcade shooter (in the same vein of the old school game DEFENDER) and is one that I hope will help me define the setting of Project Skye a little bit better. You take the controls of a pilot of a retro-futuristic plane out for revenge. You blast your way through wildly inventive levels with unique and varied bosses. I only managed to get through the first level and part of the second so far, but I found it to be a fun romp so far (if a bit serious and heavy-handed in terms of the plot–a WWII analogy with dropping a nuclear bomb on a civilization in an arcade shooter). Still, this is one I’m playing mostly for the setting inspiration than actually playing for the plot.
Battlechasers: Nightwar
This is a game based on the graphic novel series, Battlechasers which I happened to pick up a local used bookstore. I really liked the graphic novel and I’ve been a fan of the artist Joe Madureia every since I picked up a random issue of his work on the Uncanny X-Men several years ago by chance. I’ve been following the development of this game since its announcement and really wanted to get it on its release, but discovered that it would probably be better suited for a sale. The game has actually gone on sale several times already since its release earlier this year (as recent as about 2-3 weeks ago), but something would always come up and I wouldn’t be able to get a voucher code to add funds in time before the sale went away. I recently decided that I should just do that every time my balance dropped below a certain amount, and lo and behold it is was back on sale this week, so I snatched it up. It is a turn-based RPG in the style of the older Final Fantasy games, but so far, I’m really enjoying it. Playing characters based on a graphic novel that I like really helps, although their voices don’t quite match the vision that I had in my head, but that’s really a small complaint.
Well, again, keeping is short as people don’t really read the gamer updates, that’s all for today. Have a good one!
Sidney
Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora Wolf
Read Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec
Purchase Dragonhawk on Amazon.com (Paperback) or Kindle
Current Work-in-Progress: The Independent (Sci-Fi Short-Story – 2nd Draft)
Current Work-in-Progress: Project Star (Sci-Fi Short-Story -1st Draft)
Current Work-in-Progress: Ship of Shadows (Sci-Fi Graphic Novel – Script, Issue #1, Currently on Script Page 28)
September 27, 2018
Wednesday = Grading and a Movie
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Okay, so I know that this is primarily a genre (SF/Fantasy) related blog as well as blog about the writing life and while I do have some posts that I need to write in that arena, school has been monstrously busy and I’ve just not been able to get a handle on it as I have in previous months in order produce consistent posts. As I write these words, there are no less than 200 discussion posts awaiting grades, in addition to a fairly in-depth presentation due Monday, along with a teaching observation on Wednesday! Ugghh! I’m usually able to clear papers/assignments much faster, but I’m having significant problems these days, so I thought I’d quickly talk about a movie that I just finished watching for class: All About Eve.
Wednesdays = Grading and a Movie
So, it looks like the only day that I really can do the majority of my grading is going to be on Wednesdays. I’m going to have to really make sure that I print out all my students’ assignments and go to town on grading on Wednesdays. It is truly the only viable day that I have to do a ton of in-depth grading. I can do a little on Tuesdays and Thursdays, as it is too difficult to concentrate fully on grading. So Wednesdays, which used to be a movie day where I watched the movie that we were supposed to watch outside of class are now going to become my in-class movie watching days and I’ll watch the outside of class movies on the weekend (probably Sunday night before I go to bed).
Clearing the Backlog
So, I would really liked to have completely cleared one of my classes today–but I’m probably going to have to work hard to clear them both tomorrow and completely dedicate myself to my own presentation for Friday and Sunday. I know of no other way of getting everything I need done because they turn in their 1st major project on Sunday night and then the smaller Daily/Weekly work starts again next week, so I really need to get caught up and stay current or else I’m going to have a torrent of stuff to grade by mid-terms.
Well, that’s all I have for now. Going to sign off now–wish me luck that I can get up early tomorrow and really knock out my grading so that I can work on my presentation for Monday.
Sidney
Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora Wolf
Read Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec
Purchase Dragonhawk on Amazon.com (Paperback) or Kindle
Current Work-in-Progress: The Independent (Sci-Fi Short-Story – 2nd Draft)
Current Work-in-Progress: Project Star (Sci-Fi Short-Story -1st Draft)
Current Work-in-Progress: Ship of Shadows (Sci-Fi Graphic Novel – Script, Issue #1, Currently on Script Page 28)
September 24, 2018
Driving on Sunday Evenings is worse than driving on Monday Mornings
Aggressive Driver Clipart. Image Source: https://www.kisspng.com/png-aggressive-driving-clip-art-2121001/
Hard Driving
So this is going to be a shorter blog entry, but one that is surprising. Do you know that the Sunday evening drive up to school is worse than driving up on Monday morning? I don’t know why (unless it is people trying to get home to get ready for work). All I know is that people are very aggressive on Sunday evenings when I would have thought that would be one of the most passive days.
Taking Your Life in Your Own Hands
Between aggressive drivers and the rain last night, it was a hard drive, but it was also a dangerous drive due to a person who would not follow the rules. Speeding is bad, yes, but so too is going to slow and hindering the traffic flow. There was a car that was afraid to pass a semi-trailer truck, but he was in the fast lane. He created a situation in which all three lanes were packed with traffic going up the mountain in a torrential downpour. I understand being cautious, but do so in the lane with slower traffic. Hindering the traffic flow is not just irresponsible, but also dangerous. When the middle lane finally passed him, I was closing in on the truck in front, I switched names and hydroplaned a bit. Luckily, the car’s traction control kicked in, but I had a real death-grip on the wheel for a moment. Again, all because the person would not follow the rules of the road.
Night Driving
I made it safely to school–the drive’s not really long, just challenging due to the aggressive nature of the drivers or the refusal of some drivers to follow the rules. One other thing I don’t like about Sunday evening driving is that night generally falls as I’m driving and I lose the ability to see the scenery. Still, so long as I make it safely and am able to get my work done, that’s all that really matters.
Have a good day.
Sidney
Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora Wolf
Read Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec
Purchase Dragonhawk on Amazon.com (Paperback) or Kindle
Current Work-in-Progress: The Independent (Sci-Fi Short-Story – 2nd Draft)
Current Work-in-Progress: Project Star (Sci-Fi Short-Story -1st Draft)
Current Work-in-Progress: Ship of Shadows (Sci-Fi Graphic Novel – Script, Issue #1, Currently on Script Page 25)
September 20, 2018
Find a Reading/Writing Buddy
Reading /Writing Buddies are Cool especially for Deadlines
Deadlines are a pain–they are a necessary evil, but they are also a cause for major stress. One thing that I’ve found that has helped me over the past year was to find a “buddy” who I could give my work to at a specific time. It plays on your “guilt” in that you’ve made a “promise” to someone else and when you don’t follow through, you feel bad for letting them down, so you try to stick to a goal and, even if you don’t meet the goal, you try to have “something” for them. Now, if you have a “guilty” nature and you feel inordinate pressure from owing people something or letting them down, this may not be the technique to use. Still, I find it extremely useful to actually get things done.
1st Saturday of Every Month
I try very hard (doesn’t always work with school) to get something done by the first Saturday of the month. Actually, I think that I’ve mentioned this before, but in case I haven’t, I have a couple of reader/responders at the Public Library (Chattanooga), who have agreed to read my work. So, to get things to them, I’ve tried very hard to get things to them by the first Saturday of the month.
Make It Managable
The key, I think, is to make it manageable. Realistically, it means what can you do within a month? As a graduate student and a part-time worker, my time is extremely limited. I can’t take two or three hours every day to devote to my writing (personal writing). However, if I write a little every day and take what I’ve written over the month, that usually adds up to enough material for a whole story that I can send to the people to get feedback on.
I hope this helps other writers out there who are struggling with completing material for deadlines.
Sidney
Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora Wolf
Read Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec
Purchase Dragonhawk on Amazon.com (Paperback) or Kindle
Current Work-in-Progress: The Independent (Sci-Fi Short-Story – 2nd Draft)
Current Work-in-Progress: Project Star (Sci-Fi Short-Story -1st Draft)
Current Work-in-Progress: Ship of Shadows (Sci-Fi Graphic Novel – Script, Issue #1, Currently on Script Page 25)
September 18, 2018
Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores Submission Period Begins — I’m Planning on Submitting
[image error]
Submissions Open
So, later this week, the submissions open for Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores, an online magazine that I’ve submitted to in the past. My very first submission was one that the editors wanted me to revise and resubmit. While I wasn’t adverse to do that, some of the suggestions that were made to make the story better, while well-meaning, seemed to take the story in a different direction than what I envisioned, so I didn’t actually make the edits. I’ve submitter 2 or 3 other stories, but they’ve pretty much declined all my other stories. However, since they are going to open, I need to resubscribe to Duotrope (I’ve let my subscription lapse) and see what stories I haven’t submitted and try one of them.
Getting Back on the Wagon
I’ve submitted perhaps 1 or 2 stories in the past six months. One the thing about the drafting process is that I’m slow at it. Right now, I’m just on the 2nd Draft for The Independent so that one won’t be ready in time. I still have the 1st Draft of Project Skye and I’m just now working on the 1st Draft of Project Star, so, again, these will not be ready in time, so I’ll have to go with work that I’ve already completed (which I don’t think is my best). Still, while there’s very little chance that the stories I send in will be taken, there is 0% chance they’ll be taken if I don’t submit, so I’m going to have to get back on the wagon and get back to submitting, even if I’m not confident in the story’s chances.
Writing With Confidence (or, Fake it Until You Make It)
Technically, I HAVE made it as I’m published and received money for my works. There are so many writers who don’t make it that far. However, I’ve not yet reached my own personal goal of full time writing/novelist. I get 2-3 publications in a year and then spend another 2-3 years waiting on the next “set” of publications. No one can build a career that way. However, not submitting is a SURE-FIRE way of NOT getting my writing career off the ground. So, regardless of what I think of the quality of my stories, until I have a better idea to revise it, I need to make sure that I have a story out at all times. In my case, fake it until you make it again. Hopefully, next week I can update you on which story I sent out. Have a great day!
Sidney
Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora Wolf
Read Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec
Purchase Dragonhawk on Amazon.com (Paperback) or Kindle
Current Work-in-Progress: The Independent (Sci-Fi Short-Story – 2nd Draft)
Current Work-in-Progress: Project Star (Sci-Fi Short-Story -1st Draft)
Current Work-in-Progress: Ship of Shadows (Sci-Fi Graphic Novel – Script, Issue #1, Currently on Script Page 25)
September 17, 2018
Gaming Over the Weekend
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So, this weekend, I didn’t really do a whole lot of gaming, but I did get in some gaming to help with the work-life balance. I only played three games this weekend, so I’ll talk about each one below.
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands
So, this was the first game that I played this weekend and I tried to do one main story mission and a couple of side missions. I’m slowly closing in on the end of the game, but the super high difficulty that I’m currently playing at in the game world means that I go down with only two or three hits, so I have to play it pretty slowly and tactically (which, I’m sure is the reason why the game designers required me to move to this difficulty to continue to get in-game rewards for completing actions). Without this artificial spike in difficulty, I would have been close to finishing (if not already finished). As it is, I’m about halfway through this province, with 2 or three provinces left, not including side missions, of which I have about 2-3 in each of the game’s 10+ provinces. Hopefully, even at this reduced pace, I should finish the game sometime between Halloween and Thanksgiving and I can move on and give my time fully to another game.
Marvel’s Spider-Man (PS4 Exclusive)
This one is an open world game in which you get to play as Spider-Man (& Peter Parker). Those who have followed the blog know that Spider-Man is my favorite Marvel hero and they do him justice in this game. The animations are spectacular (pardon the pun) and the story (even in the beginning) is amazing (again, pardon the pun). Insomniac Studios has redeemed themselves in my eyes for their X-Box exclusive game Sunset Overddrive and their lackluster game Fuse, both of which turned me against them, but with the soft reboot of Ratchet and Clank and now, Marvel’s Spider-Man (both PS4 exclusives), I’m now back in their camp. I’d love for them to cement a partnership with Sony, but I think they are too independent for that to happen. However, the Spider-Man game is simple Astonishing (again, pardon the pun), from suits, to gameplay, to everything, this game if filled with Spider-Man lore. I can’t wait to play more!
The Crew
This game is a guilty pleasure for me in that I’ve finished it and I’ve done all that I intend to do with it in terms of gameplay, story, exploration, etc. However, I just love cruising around the truncated map of the U.S. for some reason. My original love of the game didn’t come from the story which wasn’t great, but wasn’t as bad as many made it out to be (a revenge fantasy of sorts, against an enemy who killed the protagonist’s brother to take over his number one position in the car gang the brother started. The kid brother did time for the crime that he didn’t commit and so he joins the gang to go after this killer once he gets out. Typical story that you’ve seen a million times before. What I loved about the game, however, is the “exploration” that you get to do in the game. I love driving the roads to see what’s out there, off the beaten path. That’s what I’m looking forward to in the sequel, The Crew 2 whenever I get it. Still, there’s just something about driving those roads, even though I already know what’s around the corner, that still compels me to pull it out and play it for an hour or two each weekend.
Well, that’s it for this weekend–hopefully, I’ll be able to report a more diverse group of games next week (fingers crossed). Have a good day!
Sidney
Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora Wolf
Read Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec
Purchase Dragonhawk on Amazon.com (Paperback) or Kindle
Current Work-in-Progress: The Independent (Sci-Fi Short-Story – 2nd Draft)
Current Work-in-Progress: Project Star (Sci-Fi Short-Story -1st Draft)
Current Work-in-Progress: Ship of Shadows (Sci-Fi Graphic Novel – Script, Issue #1, Currently on Script Page 25)
September 14, 2018
Chromebook Nation
Samsung Chromebook 3. Image Source: https://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/samsung-chromebook-3
Chromebooking It
I was able to, at the beginning of the semester, to get a Chromebook and it has really helped me to be far more productive. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m still an Apple MacBook Pro fan. However, for general web browsing and research, the Chromebook has been a godsend (something I should have gotten over the summer and I would have been far more productive, but hindsight is 20/20). A Chromebook, as long as you use web-based apps, and have an internet connection, is a perfect, cheap, alternative to most computers. Is it as sophisticated and versatile–no, it isn’t. However, it does the one thing that I need/want it to do: basic access to the internet and web-based platforms WITHOUT having to use Microsoft’s Windows.
Alternatives to Windows
Basically, until Microsoft stops 1) criminalizing users of its Windows Operating System by making them register copies of the operating system with a license that they can’t alter and 2) forcing draconian licensing agreements on users of its X-Box systems, I will NOT support them in ANY form (to the best of my ability). In the age of corporate conglomeration, it is almost impossible to truly boycott a corporation’s products in order to affect change in any meaningful way. However, Microsoft (along with Electronic Arts) is the poster-child for corporate machinations that I simply do not agree with no matter how much money their shenanigans make for their shareholders. As such, I refuse to purchase Microsoft products or products that I know will directly or indirectly benefit Microsoft (and to a lesser extent, EA). As such, I use Macs and Chromebooks because they 1) do what I need them to do, 2) allow me to accomplish the things that I want to accomplish and 3) they DON’T benefit Microsoft.
Basic Web Browsing
My school (MTSU) uses a web-based platform (D2L) to help students and professors move into learning in a digital environment. Since my wifi adapter no longer works on my 2008 Macbook Pro, it is very difficult to find places on campus where I can use an ethernet cable to “plug in” and find places where I can help my students become stronger students through grading and discussions online. However, the Chromebook helps me to achieve this as it is robust enough to handle the web-based nature of D2L. Also, since most “apps” now have an Android app and/or a web-based presence, it is much more useful than one would think it might be based on the specs alone. The true strength of the Chromebook is that, as long as you have an internet connection, it is pretty much a full featured computer and analogous to its “bigger” brothers–Windows PC/Macs. Now this is really true if you’re not into gaming or any other processor intensive tasks, but if most of what you do/use it for is web browsing, streaming, light audio-visual, then it functions pretty much as (at least for me) a fully functional computer–allowing me to leave my MacBook Pro at home. I’m able to MOST everything I want to via the web or web apps, it has long battery life (up to 2 – 3 days of medium to heavy use on 1 charge cycle), and it is highly portable, so it is the perfect solution where I have WiFi 90% of the time.
This isn’t a permanent solution, but it is A solution. One that is helping to at least stay current in my graduate school and creative writing lifestyle. Without it, I would be losing ground instead of treading water. So, I say, until I can Macbook Pro it, I’m going to continue to Chromebook it.
Sidney
Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora Wolf
Read Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec
Purchase Dragonhawk on Amazon.com (Paperback) or Kindle
Current Work-in-Progress: The Independent (Sci-Fi Short-Story – 2nd Draft)
Current Work-in-Progress: Project Star (Sci-Fi Short-Story -1st Draft)
Current Work-in-Progress: Ship of Shadows (Sci-Fi Graphic Novel – Script, Issue #1, Currently on Script Page 25)
September 13, 2018
Character Sketch: The Independent (Ryn)
Ginger Howard. Image Source: https://washingtoninformer.com/youngest-african-american-female-professional-golfer-at-18/
Authors Note: My character is NOT based on Ginger Howard–my character is African American, female, and wears a “baseball cap.” That is the ONLY similarity to the above image (still, I thought it would be cool to highlight Ginger Howard’s accomplishments!)
So, today I finished the character sketch for my 2nd Draft of my short story, The Independent. I won’t go into too much detail here, but I do want to tell a little bit about the process. I’m trying to create a character that resembles a real life person (who is larger than life).
Family Heirlooms
One of the things that I decided was that I wanted to make sure that I did was to give Ryn a “history.” I’ve tried to do that by creating a link between her and the past generations of her family by giving her a family heirloom that she uses in the story that gives her an emotional hook to both her past and her present. I’ve done that by giving her a “baseball cap” that is her father’s and is really important to her and her father.
Space Story grounded in “Reality”
In Star Wars, Mark Hamill is said to have been concerned about the unreality of the story, but Alec Guinness was supposed to have helped him by reminding him that even in fantasy, their has to be a link to reality. That’s one of things that I tried to do with this character sketch by making sure that I gave Ryn a true “reality.” I hope that it is a not a trite reality, but I wanted to try to create something that is more “realistic” than what I normally write.
One Surprising Thing
One thing that surprised me as I was doing this character sketch was the background section. The background for Ryn came together in a surprising way and I was surprised that I came up with this particular background for her. I don’t know that it will stick (ie that I will keep it or use it for the story), but I really think that it us both unique and quite strange (for me).
Anyway, I found that Ryn was a great character to come up with a Character Sketch for my 1st (well, 2nd time) out in a while. I intend to make this step something that I do for my 2nd drafts and hopefully this will making my stories better.
Sidney
Read Skin Deep for Free at Aurora Wolf
Read Childe Roland for Free at Electric Spec
Purchase Dragonhawk on Amazon.com (Paperback) or Kindle
Current Work-in-Progress: The Independent (Sci-Fi Short-Story – 2nd Draft)
Current Work-in-Progress: Project Star (Sci-Fi Short-Story -1st Draft)
Current Work-in-Progress: Ship of Shadows (Sci-Fi Graphic Novel – Script, Issue #1, Currently on Script Page 25)
